Main menu

Post navigation

One of ‘those’ places

I almost don’t want to talk about this place. I spent 4 nights camping in McLaren Falls park, a 10 minute drive south of Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty. It felt like one of those ‘best kept secret’ kinds of places. It was absolutely wonderful.

For 3 of the 4 nights I was there, I had the place to myself. The entire park could camp well over 100 if it was busy, probably a couple hundred even. They give you picnic benches with free working BBQs nearby. Free hot showers. Wonderful scenery and bird life. Far off the highway so no sounds but nature. All for $5 per person per night. Which they are supposed to collect in the morning, but nobody ever came around to collect from me (probably not worth it with just one car in the park). I walked around the park and just enjoyed the scenery.

I visited the namesake falls, which weren’t anything too special.

The lake had numerous bird life, including gigantic Australian Black Swans.

So during the twilight hours of a wonderful sunny day, what did I do? The ‘fun for any age’ activity of feeding the swans and ducks some bread.

It really is a great spot to spend a few days doing little more than relaxing.